Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I do not propose to accept the amendment as no formal benchmark has been established because people could not agree on what it should be. Targets have been set at various stages and these have been surpassed. When the national anti-poverty strategy was being devised in 2002, the Government considered a report drawn up the previous year by the social welfare benchmarking and indexation group. Despite the fact that no consensus was reached, the overall issue was the uprating of social welfare payments.

In 2002, the group set as a target €150 per week for the lowest social welfare payments, with the target to be met by 2007. This was achieved in that year and each year since the payments have increased again. We still have our commitment in the programme for Government but the very first line in the programme indicates that what follows is dependent on economic conditions. Such conditions have changed drastically but even for next year's budget we are still meeting the relative percentage agreement for the social welfare payment. The increase will be 3.3% at a time when we expect what may be deflation next year.

I appreciate the Deputy's comments on the price of fuel and food, although the price of fuel has come down substantially. I hope it will continue to do so. The proof of the fact that Government payments have kept pace with need to some degree is in the report published today, the EU-SILC report. Issues must still be resolved. Deputies will be aware that we set as a target in the NAP reports a reduction in the number of those experiencing consistent poverty to between 2% and 4% by 2012. Today's report shows us the consistent poverty rate has fallen from 6.5% in 2006 to 5.1% in 2007. Real progress is being made in that regard.

Lone parents form another group that we know is particularly vulnerable and we have often talked about them here. Figures show a reduction in consistent poverty for that group, from 33.9% to 20%, although it is still a very vulnerable group. It is useful to see that the changes introduced by my predecessors, particularly in allowing lone parents to work for a certain number of hours and receive a certain income without affecting entitlements, has improved their position. A related development is in the fall of the consistent poverty rate for children, down from 10.3% to 7.4%.

These are positive statements we can see from independent services which indicate that the payments and policies are working in combating consistent poverty. The figure for those at risk of poverty is 16.5%, down from 17% the year before, although that is down from 19.7% in 2003. Taking out the SSIA money from last year — even the CSO would acknowledge this as an aberration as there was much income last year that would not have been there in previous years — the risk of poverty goes down to 15.8%. Those figures on the continuing decline in the poverty rates for 2007 demonstrate the Government's commitment and its success in combating poverty and building an inclusive society. These will continue to be our aims.

With regard to the rates we will put in for next year and the targets we will always aim to meet, notwithstanding the fact that we have serious economic considerations, we are reaching them but it is not possible to set a formal long-term benchmark. We are at least meeting the aims we have set out.

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